We have to admit that Kenya’s third largest operator aka Telkom Kenya is striving to win its glory back by revolutionizing its business and turning it into a household name and a go-to mobile service provider. The carrier continues to chase this goal, and in 2017, most of its operations targeted the launch of new products and services, including voice, data and SMS plans, LTE rollout and a couple of technical and infrastructural upgrades that aim to improve coverage and delivery of services.

In 2018, the telco announced that its mobile money product was undergoing final tests before it went live a few weeks ago. The product, which was christened T-Kash, is equipped with faster and innovative procedures for sending and withdrawing cash, as well as secure bill payments. Another notable product that demonstrates Telkom hunger to reaching out to as many people as possible is Move that targets post-pa customers. Move, which was launched a few days ago, is said to rival Safaricom’s Platinum, although the two products are fundamentally different.

Perhaps the most notable campaign done by the operator is #FormNi50 that gives a car to a lucky winner every day (Monday to Friday). So far, the telco has awarded more than 40 lucky Telkom Kenya subscribers with Toyota Beltas in a promotion that targets to balloon its subscriber count that is currently nearing 4 million.

We have since talked to several winners in previous posts. Today, we got hold of Dennis Mutembei, a Mwea resident who operates a Boda Boda. Dennis, 42, won a Belta a fortnight ago and plans to use it to expand his business by trying his hand in taxi services. He also lauded the telco’s pocket-friendly voice products that come in handy in his line of work.

Asked if he has registered for T-Kash, Dennis said he is yet to do so, and has, unfortunately, not spotted a single T-Kash agent in his neck of the woods. T-Kash, which is said to have about 20,000 agents spread across the country, is growing, and lack of agents in some region may be excusable for a market that is packed with rival agents, including M-Pesa’s 148,000 agents.

We also had a chat with Osama Mohammed Shariff, a 20-year old student who resides in Nairobi. He said his preference for Telkom allowed him to win the Belta.

Osama uses Telkom mostly for calls and Internet, though he gets disappointed with spotty connections in some parts of the city. Similar to Dennis’s plight, he is also yet to register for T-Kash and prefers alternative solutions, which signifies that Telkom needs to engage more people in the registration exercise in times when cross-mobile financial services are available.